Friday
I got up at about 6:30 and got ready to head to the conference. I got there around 8:30 and got signed in and ready to listen to the Keynote speaker. I honestly don't remember a lot of the keynote cause I wasn't really listening due to being in the middle of having an anxiety attack. After the keynote, I went to my first class which was "Becoming a US citizen: A look at Naturalization Records" and learned a lot but I didn't take the best of notes in. After that I went to a "Using Social Media" class and that class explained the differences between Social Media Sites and how to use them. I got a handout and will be willing to share it with anyone who wants to see it, but I don't want to post it on here cause I don't know if it's copyrighted or not.
After that class was lunch. Which, for me consisted of a bag of potato chips and mini oreos. I know that was such a healthy lunch! But to be honest I wasn't very hungry and that sounded delicious haha! :)
I then went to the class "Preserving Your Digital Heritage: Methods to Preserve Your Digitally Born Files". I actually learned a lot in that class on how to keep your digital files safe. I have a lot of information that I got in that class. One thing that I thought everyone might want to know from that class is when saving files, you should follow the 3-2-1 Rule. The 3-2-1 Rule is Make 3 copies, Have them on 2 different types of media and Keep 1 copy in a separate location from your hub collection. I have 2 full pages with more info if anyone wants to know more. Once again cause of the possibility of copyright, I don't want to post it on here. After that, I went to the "Digital Scrapbooking" class. I didn't really learn anything new in that class. Basically if you have ever made a photo book, you know how to do digital scrapbooking.
I went to one of my favorite classes of the whole conference next. You can probably guess what it was since you know I'm writing a blog post. :) The class was "How to Blog your family History". I loved this class so much! Mandy Beyeler was awesome! She explained everything perfectly and got me so excited to start this blog.
Here are my notes if anyone is interested.
I then went to my next class which was "FamilySearch Indexing: YOUth Taking the lead". I had been doing Indexing for a long time, but then something happened and I stopped Indexing. For those of you that don't know what indexing is, it's where they have the digital documents (like right now they're doing Obituaries) and you then you transcribe the information and to help them make the information available for anyone. That probably made no sense so just check out www.familysearch.com/indexing. Indexing is actually super fun and yesterday I started indexing again!
We then had a closing (I guess you could call it) Keynote address. It was called "Leaping Over Brickwalls: 10 tips to Fast Forward". The speaker was Kathleen Brandt from a3 genealogy. If any of you have seen the show "Who do You Think You Are?" on NBC, She was on Tim McGraw's episode. She was so funny and I learned so much from her. I took a ton of notes which are saved on my computer and I will e-mail them to anyone who wants them.
Saturday
I was most excited for Saturday because of the fireside that evening. I was there for the keynote address, but it was basic information that I already knew, so I really wasn't paying all that much attention and didn't take notes. After the Keynote address, it was time for classes.
My first class was "Worming Your Way through Digital Books". I learned a lot of stuff in that class, but didn't take too many notes. I am going to type my notes up that I have cause they aren't the best handwriting due to having to write fast, but I would also be willing to email those if anyone wants them. I was then on to my next class which was "Indexing for Youth Part 2". Once again, the teacher got me super excited to start indexing! In this class, he showed us how to index mostly.
It was then Lunch time which, once again I wasn't very hungry and so my lunch was once again Potato Chips and Oreos. But, I also had some Cantaloupe and grapes, so it was a little more healthy. :)
My next class was "False Teeth Cause Death- What you can learn by Indexing Obituaries". I really didn't learn anything cause it was basically the adult version of the Indexing classes I had taken earlier.
I then had my "Finding the Stories" class. In that class I learned about how to find out stories about your family and how to start creating your own family history.
Here are the notes I took for anyone who is interested.
So since I did the conference and took classes, I had the chance to go to a meet and mingle with Sister Elaine S. Dalton and her husband. I was so excited! So, after the last class, the youth who got to participate in the meet and mingle got sent to the Cultural Hall (Gym) and waited until we were able to go to the High council room for the meet and mingle. Once I got into the high council room, I went right over to Sister Dalton because I had brought my own dinner due to the fact that they were having Pizza and I no longer can have dairy. I was so excited I could barely talk at first. At first it was me and a group of girls, and we all talked to her, then the girls walked away. At that point, I told her that I had her book and I then asked her to sign it. She was more than glad to.
My book that She Signed!
Then, My mom and new friend Emily walked over and we all started talking to her. She told my mom that she thought my mom and I were sisters which made my mom's day. We talked for a little while and then my mom and Emily went to get their food. I just stood there awkwardly cause I was all alone and waited for them. After that, I went and ate my dinner. Don't worry it was a ham sandwich and cantaloupe with grapes. :)
Here's the picture of us.
So after the picture, Sister Dalton told my dad to add the caption to the bottom "Good Job Dad". For those of you who are confused about why she said to do that. In the October 2011 General Conference she gave a talk called "Love Her Mother". You Can check out the talk here. So here is the picture with the caption. :)
After I got the picture with my dad, I asked her if I could get a selfie with her. She said sure! After my selfie, I told her thanks. She then told me," You are so cute!" That is one thing I will never forget!
It was honestly one of the best nights of my life. It is up at the top with the Cultural Celebration for my favorite nights. I didn't take any notes cause I just wanted to enjoy the fireside. Brother Dalton spoke about Family History and Temple work. It was an amazing talk. He showed us a clip of Elder Bednar's talk "The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn". You can check out that talk here. In that talk Elder Bednar listed the blessing you will receive if you do Family history.
Here is a list of the blessings.
Sister Dalton talked about anything and everything. One thing that stuck out to me was that she said,"In school, I was the Unpopular nerd." That line meant so much to me cause not so much now that I do online school, but when I went to a public school, I was that girl. So to know that she was that girl really made me smile. She also kept reminding us that we are never alone. Another thing that she mentioned was how it's never to late to repent on mistakes we have/are making. She mentioned how if she was running a marathon and she made a wrong turn, she wouldn't keep going the wrong way wasting all her training and time. She would turn around as quickly as she could and make her way back to the race path. I enjoyed that fireside so much and I am so glad I was able to go. I promise my posts won't always be this long but, I wanted to cover everything that happened. :)
